Ok, so I have been a bit crap at writing recently. There’s been a lot going on.

But, today I bring you a collection of cool stuff made just for pets. These images have been collected over the last 3 years so most of them are from places I don’t remember. I only thought of them today because I am busy trying to draw up the plans for a Rabbit Duplex so our Flemish Giants don’t destroy our new garden. 4 big rabbits + lawn = the bog of eternal stench.

I not really a fan of green as a colour… but some of these little finds are starting to make me reconsider that opinion. Possibly it’s because I like green as a concept, or it’s because it makes some of my favorite colours pop.

So here are last steps of the wedding shoe customization. I have given them to the bride now so, hopefully, I will get so photos of them being worn.

Here I have re-masked the shoes using masking tape as the sellotape was getting messy. I then painted both the heels and the sides Violet Permanent purple by Pebeo using acrylic paint. I did 2 thin coats of purple to get an even flat colour, sanded lightly with an emery board to remove any lumps and applied 1 more thin coat. You can see in this photo that I have then masked off stripes on the heel and painted over top with black – again in 2 thin coats.

Once the paint is totally dry you can remove all the masking tape and touch up any imperfections. I did big areas with paint and smaller fiddly bits with a black sharpie. This works particularly well on the satin fabric as it is flexible. Some bits of white undercoat could be trimmed off with a scalpel where they had built up underneath the tape. When working with fabric this is something that is hard to avoid due to its absorbent nature so don’t get too worried about it.

Once all the final touch ups have been done I sealed the paintwork with a clear flexible non-yellowing varnish. There are a few on the market in matte, semi-glossy & glossy finish but I use Pebeo Acrylic Varnish in Brilliant Gloss available from Gordon Harris. Again, this was applied in 2 thin coats that I ran up onto the fabric slightly to ensure that no chipping would occur. As these are wedding shoes I also added 2 small red hearts onto the sole of each shoe and varnished over top to seal.

I then packed the shoes and flew with them in my carry on luggage to Australia since I don’t trust the baggage chuckers not to break things. The purple in these photos looks quite blue, however, it is in fact a rich “bogan” purple in the best tradition of Fords everywhere 🙂

I have masked off the satin with tape. Usually I would use low-tack painters tape, but since I didn’t have any, I used sellotape. This still works but you run the risk of leaving sticky goop behind on the fabric. Trim off any excess tape with your scalpel making sure all the edges are covered where you don’t want paint.

Next paint a base coat. I have used white as I want the purple to be bright and vibrant. If you are wanting a more muted look, try grey or black as your base coat. Apply the paint in a thin even layer avoiding lumps and using brush strokes that all go in the same direction. You can always apply a second base coat if you need to but it is difficult to get an uneven surface to look good, so resist the tempation to slap the paint on thick. Allow to dry and buff with an emery board to smooth out any blemishes.